1976 Summer Olympics
The 1976 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad, were held in 1976 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Other candidates in the bid to organise the Olympics were Moscow and Los Angeles. The final choice was made on May 12 1970 on the 69th IOC session. Los Angeles was eliminated in the first round of voting. In the last round, Montreal defeated Moscow, 41 votes to 28 (with one blank vote).
*
Canada, the host country, unfortunately left with only 5 silver medals and 6 bronze medals. It was the first time in Olympic history that the host country of the Summer Games won no gold medals. This feat had occurred previously only in the Winter Games - 1924 in Chamonix,
France, 1928 in St. Moritz,
Switzerland and again at the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo,
Yugoslavia and once more for Canada at the 1988 Calgary Games.
* In a protest to a tour of
South Africa by the
New Zealand rugby team,
Tanzania led a boycott of 22
African nations as the
IOC refused to bar the New Zealand team. Some of the nations had already participated however, as the teams only withdrew after the first day.
* Following the
Munich massacre, high security was part of the scene for these games.
* The organisation of the Olympics turned out bad financially for Montreal, as the city remained faced with debts well after the Games had finished. The
Olympic Stadium, a daring design of
French architect
Roger Taillibert, remains a lasting monument to the huge deficit, as it never had an effective retractable roof, and the tower was only completed after the Olympics. Montreal 1976 are the most expensive Games ever organised.
* The
Olympic Flame was "electronically" transmitted from Athens to Ottawa, by means of an electronic pulse derived from the actual burning flame. From Ottawa, it was carried by hand to Montreal. Following a rainstorm that doused the Olympic flame a few days after the opening of the games, an official relit the flame using his cigarette lighter. Organizers quickly doused it again and relit it using a backup of the original flame.
* 14-year-old
Nadia Comaneci of
Romania scored seven perfect 10s and won 3 gold medals, including the prestigious All Around, in women's
gymnastics, 3 gold medals there had also been won by
Nelli Kim of
USSR.
Nikolai Andrianov of
USSR won 4 gold medals, including All Around, in men's gymnastics.
*
Viktor Saneyev (
Soviet Union) won his third consecutive
triple jump gold medal, while
Klaus Dibiasi of
Italy did the same in the platform
diving event.
*
Alberto Juantorena of
Cuba became the first man to win both the 400 m and 800 m at the same Olympics.
Finland's
Lasse Virén also achieved a double in the 5000 and 10000 m and finished 5th in the
marathon, thereby failing to equal
Emil Zátopek 1952 achievements.
* Boris Onischenko, a member of the Soviet Union's modern pentathlon team, was disqualified after he had rigged his épée to register a hit when there wasn't one. Due to this all
USSR modern pentathlon team, which was a leader at the moment, was disqualified too. Onischenko earned enmity of other Soviet Olympic team members (e.g., USSR volleyball team members threatened to throw him out of hotel's window if they would meet him).
* Women's events were introduced in
basketball,
handball and
rowing.
* Five
American boxers -
Sugar Ray Leonard,
Leon Spinks,
Michael Spinks,
Leo Randolph and
Howard Davis Jr. won gold medals in
boxing. This has been often called the greatest Olympic boxing team the United States ever had, and, out of the five American gold medalists in boxing, all but Davis went on to become professional world champions.
*
Princess Anne of the
United Kingdom was the only female competitor not to have to submit to a sex test. She was a member of her country's
equestrian team.
*Japanese gymnast Shun Fujimoto performed on a broken right knee, and helped the Japanese team win the gold medal for the team championship. Fujimoto broke his leg on the floor excercise, and due to the closeness in the overall standings with the USSR, he hid the extent of the injury. With a broken knee, Fujimoto was able to complete his event on the rings, performing a perfect triple somersault dismount, maintaining perfect posture. He scored a 9.7 thus securing gold for Japan. Years later, when asked if he would do it again, he stated bluntly "No, I would not."
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Velodrome (foreground) and Olympic Stadium, Montreal |
See the medal winners, ordered by sport:
Top medal-collecting nations:(for the full table, see 1976 Summer Olympics medal count)
Articles about Montreal Summer Olympics by nation:The Olympics in Canada
1976 was the first time Canada hosted the Olympics; it has subsequently hosted the Olympics once more, at the
1988 Winter Olympics in
Calgary, and will host the
2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver. Coincidentally,
Toronto hosted the
1976 Summer Paralympics.
The Olympics in Montreal
Montreal saw the 1976 games as a chance to build on its world prestige that was first rewarded with a
World's Fair on Canada's centennial. It used the opportunity to expand its rapid mass transit system (subway) first built for
Expo '67, the
Metro.
With the
Munich Massacre at the
1972 Summer Olympics on everyone's minds, security was topflight for the 1976 games. Montreal 1976 pointed the way to the future in Olympic security, which was further increased for the
2002 Winter Olympics in
Salt Lake City.
Montreal massively overspent on the Olympics, following Mayor Jean Drapeau's adage,
The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby. However, with rampant corruption, and lack of financial controls, Montreal did indeed lose money, over $2 billion dollars (US), when it was all said and done. This is known colloquially as the Big Owe. As of
2004, Montreal is still paying off the debt, and the Montreal Olympic Stadium (formerly the home of
Major League Baseball's
Montreal Expos) is still not complete, and still under construction, needing a new roof, as previous designs have proved inadequate for the climate.
The Olympics after Montreal
Following the news of the massive financial losses of the Montreal Games, few cities wished to host the Olympics. This was seen as a major threat to the future of the Olympic Games, and was not until the financially successful
1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles that cities began to line up to be hosts again. The Los Angeles and Montreal Games are seen as examples of what to do and not to do when organizing the Olympics, and serve as object lessons to prospectant host cities. Since then, additional object lessons have been drawn from
Atlanta in 1996 (the need to avoid commercialization) and
Athens in 2004 (the need to organize and build to schedule).
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1976 Summer Paralympics*
International Olympic Committee*
WikiProject Sports Olympics*
IOC country codes*
1976 in Canada*
IOC Site on 1976 Summer Olympics
